By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

WHEN? Tuesday 17 March, opens 24 March and runs through 9 May 2026 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including 20-minute interval)

The best thing about this musical of the life of French painter and founder of the Impressionists Monet is when his wife contemplates their relationship in 11pm number There Are No Stars.

• Read on for reasons including whether Monet’s story benefitted from musical form and why the songs weren’t better

You join us in 20th century France as old Monet, an engaging Jeff Shankley, contemplates the 1st World War, his writer’s block and invites the audience to serve as his titular mirror as he searches for inspiration.

His workroom is packed with canvasses as he conjures up young Monet, Dean John-Wilson (Your Lie In April, Harold Pinter Theatre) is the best singer in the cast, and we learn of the younger man’s desire to have his work displayed in the prestigious Beaux-Arts Salon.

We meet young Monet’s mentor Manet, his contemporaries Renoir and Bazille and through them Monet falls in love with a model called Camille, given excellent voice by Brooke Bazarian, who becomes his wife.

The score is light pop opera and our problem with it is that most of the songs describe the characters’ situations rather than propel the narrative as the best musicals do.

John-Wilson is undoubtedly the show’s star but is underserved by the musical material which means we’re struggling to remember any of his songs even the 1 above which recently made it onto socials.

Shankley as old Monet makes for an interesting narrator as he observes the interactions of his younger self and his commentary offers wise analysis on both the importance of enjoying youth while despairing at how much young Monet doesn’t yet know about the world.

There’s a lot of exposition and yet we came away from A Mirrored Monet: The Musical wondering exactly what story the work was trying to tell as there’s lots going on but yet so very little for the audience to cling onto.

The disappearance of 1 character is dismissed as going to the war to avoid the scandal of the blackmail of a gay prostitute and the audience could be forgiven for thinking that might have been a more interesting avenue to go down than the 1 we are presented with here.

The treatment of the Beaux-Arts Salon critic is also bafflingly simplistic although at least that plot line resolves itself in a way that felt more natural.

There’s even an ill-advised trip to London where the Monets marvel at the fog and how the English call the French ‘frogs’.

While there’s no doubt about Monet’s artistry, we came away from this wondering whether his story benefitted from musical form and why the songs weren’t better.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy A Mirrored Monet Tickets
• Have you seen a Dean John-Wilson show before and what did you think of it? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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